Publications
This page highlights publications relevant to understanding the history of the General Library of the University of Coimbra and its collections. We have selected both research works and those aimed at a general audience, including publications produced by members of the BGUC staff.
Boletim da Biblioteca Geral
The Boletim da Biblioteca Geral continues the Boletim Bibliográfico da Biblioteca da Universidade de Coimbra, whose first issue was published on 1 January 1914.
Five Jewels from Coimbra
This work revisits five key pieces of the classification of «Coimbra – Alta – Sofia» as a World Heritage Site: the Joanina Library, the Chapel of São Miguel, the baroque organ of the chapel, the Botanical Garden and the National Museum of Machado de Castro. The tour is guided by highly regarded experts who, in their chapters, not only summarize essential historical information about each of the revisited places, but also add, in several cases, important new information.
João Gouveia Monteiro and Maria Leonor Cruz Pontes, eds.Cinco Joias de Coimbra: Património Mundial da Humanidade, Coimbra University Press, 2023.
The Joanine Library: A Living Library
Throughout the year, more than 350,000 tourists enter the Joanina Library, coming from all over the world. Among the many questions that result from the curiosity of those who visit us, we highlight those that are most frequently asked and which are mainly concerned with the function of the building as a living library.
José Augusto Cardoso Bernardes,The Joanine Library: A living library, Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra, 2017.
The Books in their Order: For the History of the General Library of the University
This study thus becomes a tribute, a testimony of recognition, establishing another memory in which events and affections are intertwined. In this story, the presence of the narrators is felt, discreetly but clearly: what comes to us is a look from within at the problems that challenge them day to day, at the passion that connects them to the work they do, projected in the reading they do of the past and the characters in its plot. When they tell the library, they tell themselves: and this almost confidential perspective makes for an enticing reading experience.
A. E. Maia do Amaral, Os livros em sua ordem: para a história da biblioteca geral da universidade (antes de 1513-2013), Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra, 2017
The University Library: Permanence and Metamorphoses
With the celebrations of its 500th anniversary as a backdrop, the General Library of the University of Coimbra organized an International Conference on “The University Library: permanence and metamorphoses”, which took place on the 16th, 17th and 18th of January 2014, in the auditorium of the Rectory of the University of Coimbra. The main objective of this scientific meeting was to reflect on the present and the future of libraries that serve university audiences. Additionally, we sought to draw attention to the importance of the Library, with a view to the progress of technical and scientific knowledge. Finally, the conference was also intended as an opportunity for prospective reflection and as a meeting place between the sensitivities of all those who work professionally with books and other bibliographical media.
With this aim, papers, round-table discussions and testimony sessions were presented around topics such as the value of university libraries, the university library in context, changes and challenges, the university library and the information and knowledge society, the impact of open access on the scientific community, and digital libraries.
Ana Maria Eva Miguéis, Carla Alexandra S. Ferreira, José Augusto Cardoso Bernardes, A Biblioteca da Universidade: Permanência e Metamorfoses, Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra, 2015.
Joanina Library of the University of Coimbra
«The construction of the Joanina Library seems to have followed two clear purposes: a king who wanted to immortalize himself and a University that needed a space to store its books. (…)
By writing extensively and with critical judgement about the Joanina Library, Carlos Fiolhais reveals the erudition and inquisitive spirit that we know well from many other texts and that make him one of the most acclaimed national university professors. But the tone in which he writes cannot hide the special fascination that has gripped him for a long time, especially during the seven years in which he directed the University's General Library, while also taking over the destiny of the Joanina Library itself. In addition to the important information he gathered about Casa da Livraria, what is most impressive in the beautiful text he signed is precisely this bond of intense affection that few have resisted. »
Excerpt from the Preface by José Augusto Cardoso Bernardes
Carlos Fiolhais e Paulo Mendes, Biblioteca Joanina da Universidade de Coimbra, Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra, 2014.
Treasures from the General Library
In the wake of valuing what goes beyond mere bibliographic rarity, these Treasures of the General Library of the University of Coimbra have a plan that passes through the Library buildings, revealing a handful of details that are completely unknown and never seen before – paradoxically – in the most visited building in the city, but it also includes manuscripts starting in the 12th century, codices and beautiful illuminations, 16th century editions, the true “golden period” of our typography, and the rarest Portuguese periodicals. Music, photography and image in all their forms were not forgotten, including the image of the library itself, represented either in its materiality by more than a century of photography, or in its identity, in the form of the bibliographic marks that represented it.
One of the most striking characteristics of this volume is the relevance that the image has gained in it. Almost all of the charm of the work is due to the radiant and “scientific” photography of Paulo Mendes and the more staged and poetic photography of João Armando Ribeiro, without forgetting the charm of all the great photographers also mentioned there and who, from Charles Thurston- Thompson, in 1866, to Candida Hoefer, in 2006, captured this photographic object of excellence that is the Joanina Library.
A. E. Maia do Amaral e A. J. Leonardo. Tesouros da Biblioteca Geral da Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra University Press, 2011.
Catalogue of Publications
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